John
Brown was a radical (white) abolitionist who encouraged violent slave
revolts and was a veteran of Bleeding Kansas, the deadly fight to
determine whether slavery should be legalized in Kansas.On October 16, 1859, Brown and a group of followers attacked and
captured the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (today, West
Virginia), from which they planned to supply slaves with arms for an
insurrection.Brown and his
cohorts were captured on October 18, tried for murder and treason on
October 27-30, and executed on December 2, 1859.John Brown’s raid was a polarizing event in a nation already
suffering from increasing sectional tensions centering on the issue of
slavery.This cartoon of a
slaveowner arming his slaves to fight against Brown reflects the
artist’s view that outside attacks on the South united whites and
blacks in defense of the region.

Although
Harper’s Weekly later articulated strong support for black
civil rights during the editorship of George William Curtis (1863-1892),
the journal avoided coverage of the divisive slavery issue in its
earlier years.That stance arose from the Harper brothers’ financial
interest in maintaining their national subscription base by not
offending Northerners or Southerners, and their political judgment that
radical agitators on both sides had needlessly created sectional
animosity.John Brown’s
raid, however, was a major story in newspapers across the country and
too important for Harper’s Weekly to ignore.In addition, the newspaper gained an edge when Harper’s leading
illustrator-writer, David Hunter Strother (“Porte Crayon”), was in
nearby Charles Town when the raid at Harper’s Ferry occurred, allowing
him to contribute an eyewitness series of illustrated articles and
cartoons.

Strother was a native Virginian
known for his colorful tales and sketches of rural life in the South and
West, published primarily in Harper’s Monthly.Although a firm opponent of secession (and a Unionist during the
Civil War), his family included many slaveowners and he adamantly
opposed abolitionism.Strother was also related to the special prosecutor at John
Brown’s trial, Andrew Hunter, and was therefore allowed to accompany
Hunter and Governor Henry Wise as they interviewed Brown.Aware of the importance of language in influencing readers’
impressions, Strother labeled Brown and his men “outlaws” and the
incident an “invasion,” rather than “insurgents” and
“insurrection” as many reporters had done.He understood that the term “insurrection” still resonated
with the legitimacy of the American Revolution and implied a local
(slave) rebellion against unjust rule.

The fear of many white
Southerners that a violent slave uprising might one day erupt was
registered in Strother’s dual portrayal of John Brown’s raid as both
an evil event and one that was “folly” and “ludicrous.”He attempted to calm the anxiety of white Southerners by
presenting the slaves as child-like, cowardly when left to their own
devices, yet fiercely loyal to their masters.Strother reassured his white audience that the blacks at
Harper’s Ferry had neither the foreknowledge of the raid nor the
inclination to align themselves with Brown and his followers.The black railroad porter who was murdered by Brown’s raiders
was portrayed as a “heroic” and “faithful” defender of the
South.

Strother’s racism is apparent
in the description of slaves and free blacks in his articles, some of
the most blatantly racist language to appear in Harper’s Weekly.He claimed to have interviewed several slaves who had been
captured by Brown and his men. The
slaves—presented as too frightened to take up weapons and join
Brown—were jubilant to be freed from his clutches and jeered at their
former captors.Readers
were informed that “full evidence” supported the contention that the
slaves would have “cheerfully” taken up weapons against Brown and
his men, if only the slaves’ owners had been present.

In the featured cartoon, the
artist presents the relationship between a master and his slaves as so
trustful, and the institution of slavery as so benign, that the master
arms his slaves to protect the plantation against the “invasion” of
John Brown and his men.The
alleged emotional closeness between the master and slaves is emphasized
by an elderly slave (left background) cradling the master’s young son
in his arms.Overall, the
cartoon conveys the message that being the slave of a (presumably) kind
master is better than being freed by violent abolitionists.The notion of the commitment of the entire community to the slave
system was completed by the reporter’s insistence that the
overwhelming majority of the militia volunteers who fought to suppress
the raid were non-slaveowners.

In reality, Southern whites so
feared armed blacks and any hint of a slave revolt that state
legislatures enacted strict laws prohibiting the use of firearms by
blacks.Such laws were one
example of “slave codes”—an elaborate system of state laws and
local ordinances that severely limited the liberties of slaves and
protected the institution of slavery.Note that the slaves in this cartoon carry bladed weapons, while
the gun is held for the master.

Furthermore, at least one
historian has recently suggested that, contrary to Strother’s
portrayal, perhaps as many as 150 slaves and several freemen in the
Harper’s Ferry area were aware of, and sympathized with, the intended
raid on the federal arsenal.The
torching of slaveowners’ crops and barns during the subsequent trial
and execution of Brown and his men is probably attributable to guerrilla
activity by local blacks.The
support of the local black community helps clarify why John Brown chose
Harper’s Ferry as his intended target to foment a slave rebellion.

Harper’s Weekly
showcased Strother’s work on John Brown’s raid and trial for several
weeks as it competed for new readership with its leading rival, Frank
Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper.However, by the time of the execution of Brown and his men, the
use of Strother’s work as a marketing tool had reached the saturation
point.With increasing
criticism from both Northern and Southern readers, and heightened
sectional tension across the nation, Harper’s Weekly chose not
to publish Strother’s final drawing and story on Brown’s execution.Instead, a mundane description of the abolitionist’s death was
relegated to the fine print of the “Domestic Intelligence” column in
the middle of the paper.Once again, the contentious issues of slavery and
sectionalism virtually vanished from the pages of Harper’s Weekly
until secession of the Southern states in the winter of 1860-1861.